Updated November 4, 2026 · 9 services tested
We tested 9 LLC services for California. Northwest is our pick: $39 + $70 state fee, with the first registered agent year included (then $125/yr).
By Jon Morgan · Fact-checked by Jon Tobin, Business Attorney · How we test
Northwest Registered Agent
$39 + $70 state feeForm my LLC for $39 (opens in a new tab)
LegalZoom
$0 + $70 state feeSee LegalZoom plans (opens in a new tab)Save 20% with code: venturesmarter20
ZenBusiness
$0 + $70 state feeSee ZenBusiness plans (opens in a new tab)Prices checked November 4, 2026. California's state filing fee is $70.
Northwest Registered Agent is our Best Overall choice for forming a California LLC. Its $39 formation offer includes the first year of registered-agent service (then $125/yr), and Corporate Guides offer a direct contact for filing questions.
LegalZoom is our Best Full-Service Formation pick for founders who want advisor, legal-document or attorney support beyond the filing.
ZenBusiness is our Best for Guided Online Formation pick when a clear dashboard and compliance follow-up matter most.
We score each provider across support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use and user ratings. We also assess how clearly each offer explains California's filing fee, registered-agent requirement, Statement of Information and annual tax.
| Service | Service Fee | Registered Agent | Money-Back Guarantee | Score | Compare offers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $39 + $70 state fee | Free first year with the $39 LLC, then $125/yr | 90 days | 4.9 | Form my LLC (opens in a new tab) |
| $0 / $249 / $299 + $70 state fee | $249 first year, then $249/yr (not in any plan) | 60 days before filing; fees excluded once filed | 4.7 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
| $0 / $199/year / $299/year + $70 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | 60 days; state fees excluded once filed | 4.6 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 + $70 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $249/yr | No | 4.5 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 / $199/year / $249/year + $70 state fee | $199 first year, then $199/yr (not in any plan) | No | 4.4 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $49 + $70 state fee | $14.99/mo first year, then $14.99/mo (inside its compliance plan) | Case dependent | 4.3 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $99 + $70 state fee | $99 first year, then $159/yr (sold separately) | Case dependent | 4.2 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 / $169 promo / $269 promo + $70 state fee | $596 first year, then $596/yr (billed $149 a quarter; not in any plan) | 60 days | 4.0 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
 | $0 / $199 / $299 + $70 state fee | Free first year with formation, then $149/yr | Before state filing, less $30 | 3.9 | See plans (opens in a new tab) |
Prices checked November 4, 2026. California's state filing fee is $70.
Each score combines support, price, features, turnaround, ease of use and user ratings.
Refund: 90 days
BBB: Not accredited; A rating
Same/Next Day Filing: No paid internal-speed tier
Northwest Registered Agent puts the agent appointment inside the main order instead of selling it later. A Corporate Guide, the company's in-house specialist, answered our test questions about the assigned office directly.
No script, no transfer. The account exposed mail and website setup tools, but the affiliate-page capture did not confirm which extras were included with the $39 offer; its security screen prevented a full checkout comparison.
Northwest cannot make a California filing anonymous. The agent's street address still lands on the public record, so the privacy win is keeping a personal address off that one line.
Pros
Cons
The first-year registered-agent service renews at $125/year if retained. California's $70 Articles of Organization filing fee is separate.
The affiliate landing returned a security-verification screen, so captured mail-forwarding, email, domain and website listings were not confirmed in a visitor view; verify extras at checkout.
Refund: 60 days before filing; fees excluded once filed
BBB: A+ accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: No included same-day tier
LegalZoom took payment before we had entered every company detail. The new account then marked what was left as still needed. That split worked, but it made the leftover work harder to judge at checkout.
Once the order was underway, the account leaned on legal access, including real attorney consults, a form library with e-signature support and a licenses questionnaire that built us a report.
Registered agent service was not part of the checkout flow we tested.
Plan a few extra minutes after checkout to finish the company details. After that, the attorney consults and form library are ready whenever the business needs them.
Get 20% off eligible LegalZoom LLC formation and other services with Venture Smarter code venturesmarter20.
Pros
Cons
Prices exclude California's $70 Articles of Organization fee. Managed Service automatically renews at $49/month after 30 days; Expert Service renews at $99/month after 30 days.
You can cancel either support plan. Registered-agent service is separate at $249 first year, then $249/yr.
Refund: 60 days; state fees excluded once filed
BBB: Accredited
Free Features: Paid tiers add compliance and business tools
Checking out with ZenBusiness kept an order summary on screen the whole time, with no paid upgrade pre-selected by default. Phone and chat stayed visible on every screen, and backing out of a choice never erased what we had already entered.
The account did more work than the checkout did. Velo AI, the built-in assistant, ran a status check the moment we logged in and flagged which items were still open.
It called out the missing EIN, outstanding compliance work and the site extras, turning a blank dashboard into a short list instead of leaving us to guess.
Registered agent coverage is the one gap worth flagging. It sits outside the cheapest order, so a buyer who wants an agent handled on day one needs to arrange it before finishing checkout.
Pros
Cons
California's $70 filing fee is separate. Pro and Premium renew annually at $199 and $299, while Starter does not renew.
Starter offers an optional free year of Worry-Free Compliance, which renews at $199/year if kept. Registered-agent service appears as a separate add-on ($199 first year, then $199/yr) on this offer.
The website-builder offer lasts 30 days, then renews at $15/month if retained. Confirm selected add-ons and terms at checkout.
BBB: Not accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: Paid expedite option
Advisory Services: Tax consultation
The lowest headline number stayed intact throughout our Inc Authority order, with the first-year agent term included by default.
Reaching the final summary meant clicking through eight full-screen offers first, several running their own countdown clocks.
We declined each one and confirmed the core filing selection never disappeared behind those offers. What we did not get was any lasting dashboard. After payment, the account produced a logo tool and a "what happens next" email, and little else.
Inc Authority can post a low first-year total for a buyer willing to sit through every screen. Our test needed more attention than the leaders above, and the selected offer did not state the registered-agent renewal price.
Pros
Cons
California's $70 Articles of Organization filing fee is separate. The selected offer did not state the agent renewal price after the included year; confirm current terms at checkout.
BBB: Not accredited
Free Features: Formation and launch tools
Advisory Services: Business coaching
Formation status and brand work shared one account when we tested Tailor Brands. We moved from the entity checklist to logo, site and social-asset work without opening a second login.
That suited a customer-facing business, though it added screens that had nothing to do with the California filing itself.
Navi, the built-in guide, organized launch suggestions from our setup answers. It pointed us toward the next useful step, though faster processing and compliance handling still needed separate decisions from the branding work.
Tailor Brands makes the most sense when a founder builds the entity and its public identity at the same time. An owner with an existing logo, site and domain gets less value from the extra workspace.
Pros
Cons
California's $70 Articles of Organization filing fee is separate from the package prices. The selected affiliate offer did not show a Tailor Brands registered-agent rate or confirm whether its first year is included, so verify both at checkout.
Open any card for the complete review, scores and packages.
Refund: Case dependent
BBB: A rating
Same/Next Day Filing: No paid same-day tier
Advisory Services: Paid attorney support
LLC Attorney is the practical pick when you want solid paperwork more than a slick account. Its 24-hour turnaround promise held up in our tests. One filing closed well ahead of that window, and every document we checked was clean.
Phone support picked up in minutes on our test calls. Email replies took closer to a day, and one of four answers felt generic.
Still, the ownership and management answers we gave carried straight into the paperwork, so we never re-entered that information by hand.
The account itself stays plain. Owners who want a full calendar of reminders or a big support hub will find more of that with ZenBusiness or Northwest.
Pros
Cons
Refund: Case dependent
BBB: Accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: State dependent
Advisory Services: Compliance specialists
Harbor Compliance feels closer to an entity-management platform than a beginner filing app, and its own team confirmed there is no onboarding call for a standard LLC order.
The portal expects an owner to already know what the filing needs, then tracks progress through its own project-status feature.
The portal scans legal mail the same day it arrives and sends an automatic alert, and the account tracks each entity's own filing deadline rather than a generic reminder.
That structure matters more once a second state or a lawsuit notice enters the picture.
The tradeoff is scale. Harbor Compliance is easiest to justify for owners coordinating more than one entity rather than a single California LLC chasing the cheapest possible filing.
Pros
Cons
Refund: 60 days
BBB: Not accredited
Free Features: Formation and lifetime support
Swyft Filings runs a five-step application, and our team moved through it in well under 15 minutes without getting stuck on any step. The provider advertises support response times under 10 minutes.
The account dashboard posted real status updates instead of leaving an order in a black box until the state responded. The Premium offer also lists a professional business address and compliance monitoring.
Registered-agent service is separate from the formation packages; the current provider page lists it at $149+ per quarter. Compare that recurring charge with the service you need before choosing.
Pros
Cons
California's $70 Articles of Organization filing fee is separate. The selected offer shows $199 and $299 as prior prices beside the current $169 and $269 promotional prices; confirm live pricing and terms at checkout.
Refund: Before state filing, less $30
BBB: Not accredited
Same/Next Day Filing: Premium: expedited internal handling
Advisory Services: Tax consultation on paid tiers
A running total stayed on screen throughout our Bizee checkout. Every optional offer carried a plain decline button instead of a pre-checked default. The first agent term rode along with the order at no extra line item.
Republic Registered Agent LLC, a separate firm, showed up in the filing as the real contact for service of process instead of Bizee itself.
A few free extras on the account, like a starter mailbox and contract forms, sat idle until we turned them on by hand.
Bizee suits a founder who is fine with that outside agent and willing to switch those extras on.
It placed below the leaders here because the account took more digging to tell which services were active and which ones just sat there waiting to be claimed.
Pros
Cons
One year of registered-agent service (then $149/yr) was included with each formation option.
California's official $70 LLC-1 filing fee is separate; the selected California checkout displayed $75 as “State Fee” without explaining the difference, so confirm the final total at checkout.
Bizee's consumer registered-agent page lists a $149 first year, then $149/yr standalone rate, but the selected order preview did not show the post-year renewal amount. Confirm the renewal term before ordering.
We scored every service on the same LLC service testing methodology, covering Support, Price, Features, Turnaround, Ease of Use and User Ratings, then a seventh check for California Fit.
The displayed rating on each card is the six-category total divided by six and rounded once.
California layers a filing fee, a Statement of Information and an $800 annual tax on top of the base order, so we weighted how clearly each account surfaced those extra obligations alongside the advertised price.
Northwest's Corporate Guides answered our filing and agent questions by phone without a script or a transfer, and ZenBusiness matched that with chat and phone support that stayed visible throughout checkout rather than tucked behind a help center.
Northwest leads the Support scores, with LegalZoom close behind and ZenBusiness also scoring well.
In testing, Northwest's Corporate Guides answered filing and agent questions without a script or transfer, while ZenBusiness kept phone and chat visible through checkout.
Harbor Compliance handled account and deadline questions capably even without live chat.
A low number on the first screen told us little about a California owner's costs beyond formation.
We considered published service charges and known renewals alongside the state's separate annual cost; when a provider did not publish a renewal rate, we did not assume one.
Northwest and Inc Authority share the top Price score. We compared published provider charges and renewal terms where available, plus California's separate annual tax, without treating unpublished renewals as known costs.
Northwest's $125 annual renewal is published; Inc Authority's selected offer did not state its post-year-one agent rate.
ZenBusiness offers a useful set of tools in one account, including an EIN helper, a document center and compliance tracking that flagged the Statement of Information before it came due.
Northwest and LegalZoom share the top Features score.
Northwest's identity tools and LegalZoom's attorney access and form library supported that result; ZenBusiness also scored well for its dashboard, EIN helper, document center and compliance tracking.
Inc Authority scored well too, mainly on its included agent term and logo builder.
Provider-controlled review only helps once California's own queue picks up the filing, so a fast internal step still waits on the state's separate processing window before anything is official.
Northwest and ZenBusiness tie for the top Turnaround score. Our evaluation separates each provider's internal handling from California's own processing window, which determines when anything becomes official.
Inc Authority and Harbor Compliance both needed more back-and-forth before an order was ready.
A clear next step after payment mattered more than a flashy checkout screen. ZenBusiness's Velo AI opened straight to a short task list, while LegalZoom's account still needed missing details filled in after the charge went through.
ZenBusiness leads Ease of Use, with Northwest and Tailor Brands tied next. Tailor Brands keeps formation, branding and billing inside one dashboard.
Harbor Compliance scored near the bottom here, weighed down by its lack of any onboarding walkthrough.
Public reputation favored the providers with the least checkout friction and the fewest surprise renewal complaints across the review sites we checked.
Tailor Brands holds the top User Ratings score on this page, with ZenBusiness and Northwest just behind. LegalZoom trails despite strong name recognition, held back by complaints about its attorney-access renewal catching customers off guard.
This category revisits those same California-specific costs, scoring providers on how clearly each account surfaced the Statement of Information and the $800 annual tax rather than just the entry price.
Harbor Compliance and ZenBusiness handled that layered structure the most visibly, Harbor Compliance through dedicated deadline tracking built for owners managing more than one filing, and ZenBusiness through its own compliance tab.
Northwest also scored well because the agent renewal it quotes never changes once you sign up.
A formation service is optional. The steps below cover choosing a distinguishable LLC name, appointing an agent, filing the Articles, and handling the first tax and recordkeeping tasks.
After submission, check California LLC approval times. If the company winds down later, a separate guide walks through closing a California LLC the right way.
Forming an LLC in California costs $70 for the Articles of Organization plus $20 for the initial Statement of Information. Add any provider or agent charges you choose. The separate $800 annual tax generally follows within months of formation.
Yes, a California LLC generally owes the $800 annual tax in its first year, due by the 15th day of the fourth month after formation.
Check the Franchise Tax Board's current LLC page before assuming any past first-year exemption still applies, since eligibility windows for that relief have changed over time.
The initial Statement of Information is due within 90 days of California accepting the Articles of Organization, and it costs $20.
A domestic LLC then files the same form every two years on its assigned schedule. Online filing currently requires established bizfile user access.
An adult California resident or a qualifying registered corporate agent can serve as agent for service of process. The agent's California street address appears on the public filing, and the LLC cannot name itself as its own agent.
California's review time changes with the filing queue, so check the Secretary of State's current processing-date page before assuming a fixed wait. Add whatever internal review time a formation provider uses before the state ever sees the filing.
Yes, California does not require an LLC owner to live in the state. The company still needs a qualifying agent for service of process and must meet California's filing, tax and any permit requirements that apply.
Northwest Registered Agent is our Best Overall pick because its $39 offer includes the first year of registered-agent service (then $125/yr) and it earned the highest overall score, 4.9.
LegalZoom is our full-service choice, while ZenBusiness is our guided online choice.
Northwest Registered Agent is our Best Overall choice for a California LLC because its $39 formation offer includes first-year registered-agent service, and Corporate Guides provide direct filing help.
LegalZoom is our Best Full-Service Formation choice when you expect to use its advisor, legal-document or attorney support; ZenBusiness is our Best for Guided Online Formation pick for a more guided dashboard and compliance follow-up.
Tailor Brands fits founders building a public-facing brand, while LLC Attorney suits owners who prioritize legal documents.
Compare recurring provider charges with California's separate state filing, Statement of Information and tax obligations in the Quick Facts above.
References
Our verdict
$39 + $70 state fee, with the first registered agent year included (then $125/yr). 90-day money-back guarantee.
Prices checked November 4, 2026. California's state filing fee is $70.